"Simon R. Green - Nightside 1 - Drinking Midnight Wine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Simon R)

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taken steps to see to that. And as you should know, I never give up on anything that I have made
mine.'
Perhaps Leo started at that, or made a noise. Either way, Hob and Angel turned sharply in their
chairs to look at the window, and for a moment Hob and Leo looked right into each other's eyes. It
was only the barest moment, and then Leo was off and running, bolting across the open clearing as
fast as his legs could carry him. He could hear Hob shouting something behind him, and then he was
in among the dead trees and running hard. He could feel the magical defences snapping on and off
around him, trying to get a fix on him, confused by his hybrid nature. His Brother Under The Hill
spoke urgently in his mind, giving him directions.
Dead men came lurching out from between the dead trees, looking for him with their cold unblinking
eyes, but he was too fast for them, racing through Blackacre Wood with puffs of ashes flying up
every time his feet hit the ground. One of the dead might have been Reed -he didn't stop to look.
More figures appeared ahead of him, closing together to block his way. His Brother roared, filling
the ether with mental static, and the corpses driven by Hob's will were suddenly blind and
uncertain. Leo raced right through them, and they couldn't even touch him.
Leo grinned as he ran, moving quickly and confidently through the last of the dead trees. Hob
couldn't find him now, and the stalking dead men were too far behind to give him any trouble. Just
let him reach the open countryside beyond the woods, and cross back into Veritie, and he'd defy
Hob or anyone else to bring him down. And then there was thunder on the air, high above him, and
despite himself he looked back. Angel was coming for him, walking on the air.
Some twenty feet above the ground, higher than some of the trees,

Angel strode across the sky, and the air shuddered like thunderclaps where her feet trod. She was
coming faster than her stride could carry her, sweeping through the air like a hawk with fiery
eyes. Leo ran at full pelt through the dead trees, dodging back and forth, heart and lungs
straining, and Angel closed remorselessly in on him, like an owl hunting a mouse. Leo pushed
himself to his limits, while his Brother yelled for him to make the change, and with anyone else
he might have, but even in his changed state he doubted he would have lasted long against Angel.
Veritie was his only hope.
He pushed himself even harder, crying out at the pain now as he forced his body past its human
limits, and then suddenly he was out of the trees, out of Blackacre, and reality crashed down
around him. Leo threw himself to the warm and living ground and lay there, panting for breath. His
muscles were trembling with the strain he'd put on them. After a while, he turned slowly and
looked back at the border of Blackacre, where Mysterie butted up against Veritie.
And there was Angel, standing quite normally on the ground, in Blackacre. They looked at each
other for a long while, Angel's face completely expressionless, and then she turned and walked
back into the dead woods, and Leo's heart started beating again. He lay on his back on the good
warm grass, looking up at the blue sky, and waited for his breathing to return to something like
normal.
'Brother,' he said finally.
Yes?
'We're going to have to talk to someone about this.'

FOUR
SOME THINGS ARE MEANT TO BE
Toby Dexter woke up comparatively early on Saturday morning, without knowing why. He rolled slowly